Banana Yoshimoto Quotes & Sayings
Enjoy the top 100 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Banana Yoshimoto.
Famous Quotes By Banana Yoshimoto
Now only the kitchen and I are left. It's just a little nicer than being all alone. — Banana Yoshimoto
People look so beautiful when their expressions show that they know they have a future. — Banana Yoshimoto
Thanks so much for seeing, the first time you met us, that even though we're like ghosts, the two of us, even though we're not supposed to exist, we are alive. — Banana Yoshimoto
I had the feeling that Nakajima was taking one aspect of me - the straightforward, easy-going part that emerged when I was with him, the cheerful surface that I had inherited from my mom - and blowing it all out of proportion. If so, he might feel terribly betrayed when my dark, somber side eventually showed its face. — Banana Yoshimoto
She was still there inside me now, just as she always was: a life put on hold, a memory I didn't know how to handle. — Banana Yoshimoto
No one can survive childhood without being wounded. Everyone remembers at least one time when their parents rejected them, pushed them away, even though they may have still been in the womb, blind, and unable to speak. That's why, as adults, we all look for someone to become our parents again, and for someone to look after us in times of need. And we search for a person to live with who can provide the companionship we so desperately want. — Banana Yoshimoto
So, have you been enjoying yourself these days, Kazami?'
I'm having lots of fun.'
It was true. That made the sense of regret even keener, that this time in my life would soon be a thing of the past. I felt as if I could understand a little of what my mother had been through, and the feelings she may have had at different times. I wasn't a child anymore, and this made me feel awfully lonesome, and utterly alone. — Banana Yoshimoto
Perhaps there are people in this world who love their fountain pens with every fiber of their being - and that's very sad. If you're not in love with him, you can understand him. — Banana Yoshimoto
A particular variety of loneliness, like peering deep into the darkness.
It's only natural, when two separate universes touch. — Banana Yoshimoto
Truly happy memories always live on, shining. Over time, one by one, they come back to life. — Banana Yoshimoto
Okay,' I said, and waving, we parted. The feeling traveled to some infinitely distant place and disappeared. — Banana Yoshimoto
I became part of the air that surrounded Sui, and breathed her incomprehensible sadness. I think that part of those feelings live within my soul. Burdened by bad karma, and a soul that beckoned such unfortunate fate, Sui used all the resources she had to make her way through love. I witnessed that. — Banana Yoshimoto
As well as the way he always said Itadakimasu, quietly, before he started eating. — Banana Yoshimoto
We ran into lots of old friends. Friends from elementary school, junior high school, high school. Everyone had matured in their own way, and even as we stood face to face with them they seemed like people from dreams, sudden glimpses through the fences of our tangled memories. We smiled and waved, exchanged a few words, and then walked on in our separate directions. — Banana Yoshimoto
Nakajima's presence didn't put any pressure on me, either. Quite the opposite: there was a warmth in the core of my chest when he was around. — Banana Yoshimoto
in this society, things you'd think could only be bad jokes actually happen all the time. — Banana Yoshimoto
A lover should die after a long lifetime. I lost Hitoshi at the age of twenty, and I suffered from it so much that I felt as if my own life had stopped. The night he died, my soul went away to some other place and I couldn't bring it back. It was impossible to see the world as I had before. My brain ebbed and flowed, unstable, and I passed the days in a relentless state of dull oppression. — Banana Yoshimoto
these people, struggling so hard to impose a shape on a life when life has no shape, — Banana Yoshimoto
At that moment, I was truly without words. I realized that the world didn't exist by virtue of my mind. On the contrary, he and I and everyone else were swept up in a great whirlpool, swirling around constantly and not knowing where we're bound. Our sensations of pleasure and suffering, our thoughts, none of these things can stop the motion. For the first time, I was able to step away from my imagined position in the center of the universe and see myself as part of something larger. This was my revelation, and I now felt
what? Not particularly happy or sad, but just a bit precarious, as if I'd relaxed some muscle that I hadn't needed to use all along. — Banana Yoshimoto
My body knows not to respond to fake love. I guess maybe that's what it means to have been brought up well. Mom, — Banana Yoshimoto
It didn't matter whether he was nearby or far away. His image would drift up into your mind just when you least expected it, shocking you, making your chest pound. Making your heart ache. — Banana Yoshimoto
I really believe that no matter how old people get, they tend to change in certain ways depending on how people treat them - they change their colors. — Banana Yoshimoto
Fate is a ladder on which you cannot afford to miss a single rung. To skip out on even one step would mean you'll never make it to the top. — Banana Yoshimoto
Perhaps it's because she spends all her time sleeping - she comes and goes just as she pleases in the world of her dreams, she's free to go anywhere she wants. And that gives her access to much more information than people have who are up all the time. — Banana Yoshimoto
And usually, when it's all over, I find that everything has come together surprisingly well. When that happens, I feel like I've been dancing, perfectly in time, with the world. That — Banana Yoshimoto
When my grandmother died, time died, too, in this apartment. — Banana Yoshimoto
There's someone I might be getting closer to, that's all. But it's not quite coming together yet. I think I'm not ready, either," I said. "Have you got ED?" she said. "Um, no, for a number of different reasons," I said, "but it might be something similar. — Banana Yoshimoto
Her eyes were those of someone who's just fallen in love, someone who sees nothing but her lover, someone who has no fear of anything. The eyes of someone who believes that every dream will come true, that reality will move if you just give it a push. — Banana Yoshimoto
She walks away as if she were going to disappear. I wonder if I'll ever see her again.
I turned and saw her yellow blouse receding into the distance as she walked along the busy street. She looked like a balloon someone had let loose in the sky. We watched her go. — Banana Yoshimoto
I used to think that people are were supposed to be more strange, and dirty, and full of all sorts of emotions, pity and nobility, with infinite layers of complications. — Banana Yoshimoto
Everything in my life revolves around people playing at being something. — Banana Yoshimoto
Eriko raised me that way," he said, laughing. "If I didn't open the door for her, she'd get mad and refuse to get in the car."
"Even though she was a man!" I said, laughing.
"Right, right, even though she was a man. — Banana Yoshimoto
With Lizard, I felt overwhelmed by the desire to touch her skin, to kiss her, hold her, make love to her,no matter how it happened, I just had to have her, Lizard and no one else. Right then and there. Tears came to my eyes, I wanted her so much. — Banana Yoshimoto
She could warm up the air, and then gently blow it out, just like a lily. She smelled of a syrup made of boiled-down despair. — Banana Yoshimoto
May the memory of this moment, here, the glowing impression of the two of us facing each other in this warm, bright place drinking lovely hot tea, help save him, even a little bit. — Banana Yoshimoto
For ten years I had been protected, wrapped up in something like a blanket that had been stitched together from all kinds of different things. But people never notice that warmth until after they've emerged. You don't even notice that you've been inside until it's too late for you ever to go back
that's how perfect the temperature of that blanket is. — Banana Yoshimoto
We've been very lonely, but we had it easy. Because death is so heavy - we, too young to know about it, couldn't handle it. After this you and I may end up seeing nothing but suffering, difficulty and ugliness, but if only you'll agree to it, I want for us to go on to more difficult places, happier places, what ever comes, together. I want you to make the decision after you're completely better, so take your time thinking about it. In the mean time, though, don't disappear on me. — Banana Yoshimoto
I never tell my boyfriend that I'm busy when I'm not. No matter how effective they are, cheap techniques like that just don't agree with me. So it's always okay, it's always all right. In my opinion the surest way to hook a man is to be as open with him as possible. — Banana Yoshimoto
I can't imagine a life without a story. — Banana Yoshimoto
I held the feeling in my heart; the urge to discuss it died out. There was all the time in the world. In the endless repetition of other nights, other mornings, this moment, too, might become a dream. — Banana Yoshimoto
Things keep coming around and around in this world, it's all crammed violently together, two parts of the same skin. — Banana Yoshimoto
I felt sure of this. However much I loved him, and as beautiful as the world was, none of it was powerful enough to take the weight off his heart, that heaviness that dragged him down, into the beyond, making him yearn to be at peace. — Banana Yoshimoto
In this world there is no place for sadness. No place; not one. — Banana Yoshimoto
My fury was lofty, pure, cool. It was an emotion that none of these people, struggling so hard to impose a shape on life when life has no shape, could begin to understand. — Banana Yoshimoto
My fury was lofty, pure, cool. — Banana Yoshimoto
Just being with Nakajima made me feel as if we were detached from history, and had no particular age. — Banana Yoshimoto
It's a marvelous thing, the ocean. For some reason when two people sit together looking out at it, they stop caring whether they talk or stay silent. You never get tired of watching it. And no matter how rough the waves get, you're never bothered by the noise the water makes by the commotion of the surface - it never seems too loud, or too wild. — Banana Yoshimoto
I see two lovers looking over the edge of the cauldron of hell. Are they contemplating a double suicide? This means their love will end in hell.' I couldn't stop laughing. — Banana Yoshimoto
When there's a plus, there's always a minus. If there's a powerful light, the darkness that is its opposite will be just as strong. — Banana Yoshimoto
Maybe then our stopped time would move again." The — Banana Yoshimoto
You don't necessarily have to want to become an adult; it happens as a matter of course, as you go, making choices. The important thing, I think, is to choose for yourself. Standing — Banana Yoshimoto
Actually, time had always been passing. I had just managed to avoid thinking about it very much. It would be hard for me to recapture that feeling - life wasn't so easy anymore. Small things pricked my heart. In those early days, I lived in a world of overwhelming sensations; it was like I had just fallen out of love. — Banana Yoshimoto
beyond that, I couldn't say. There's no point thinking about the future. That — Banana Yoshimoto
want to be overwhelmed, too, while I'm still not too old. I want to be blown away by greatness. Because I've started wanting to become a better person, now, even just a little bit better. — Banana Yoshimoto
If a person hasn't ever experienced true despair, she grows old never knowing how to evaluate where she is in life; never understanding what joy really is. — Banana Yoshimoto
I spent most of my time thinking, because I didn't have enough energy to do anything else. — Banana Yoshimoto
Why were we so far apart, even when we were together? It was a nice loneliness, like the sensation of washing your face in cold water. — Banana Yoshimoto
The room was so unearthly quiet, I lost all sense of time being divided into seconds. I felt that I was the only person alive and moving in a world brought to a stop. — Banana Yoshimoto
On nights like this when the air is so clear, you end up saying things you ordinarily wouldn't. Without even noticing what you're doing, you open up your heart and just start talking to the person next to you - you talk as if you have no audience but the glittering stars, far overhead. — Banana Yoshimoto
The sky was incredibly far away, and beautiful enough to make a person wonder why our hearts are never so free. — Banana Yoshimoto
I was happy. I loved the night, I loved t so much it almost hurt. In the night everything seemed possible. I wasn't sleepy at all. — Banana Yoshimoto
Love is the kind of thing that's already happening by the time you notice it, that's how it works, and no matter how old you get, that doesn't change. Except that you can break it up into two entirely distinct types
love where there's an end in sight and love where there isn't. — Banana Yoshimoto
I wonder what it felt to move to a country where you didn't grow up. I had thought about that often since my sister got married. Do you become a character in a story native to that land, or do you, somewhere in your heart, want to return to your homeland. — Banana Yoshimoto
As long as it had remained a mystery, I could have dealt with it
no matter how enormous a mystery it became. Now that matters had gotten more specific, my imagination began supplying smells and textures. — Banana Yoshimoto
From the bottom of my heart, I wanted to give up; I wanted to give up on living. There was no denying that tomorrow would come, and the day after tomorrow, and so next week, too. I never thought it would be this hard, but I would go on living in the midst of a glomy depression, and that made me feel sick to the depths of my soul. In spite of the tempest raging within me, I walked the night path calmly. — Banana Yoshimoto
Most people are constantly perpetrating little acts of violence on others, even when they don't mean to. — Banana Yoshimoto
You know, Chihiro, darling- all it takes is one little wrong step and you end up feeling frustrated your whole life, like me. — Banana Yoshimoto
Why is it that everything I eat when I'm with you is so delicious?' I laughed. 'Could it be that you're satisfying hunger and lust at the same time? — Banana Yoshimoto
Everyone lives the way she knows best. What I mean by 'their happiness' is living a life untouched as much as possible by the knowledge that we are really, all of us, alone. That's not a bad thing. — Banana Yoshimoto
It occurred to me that if I were a ghost, this ambiance was what I'd miss most: the ordinary, day-to-day bustle of the living. Ghosts long, I'm sure, for the stupidest, most unremarkable things. — Banana Yoshimoto
fighting to bridge those gaps isn't what really matters. The most important thing is to know them inside and out, as differences, and to understand why certain people are the way they are. My — Banana Yoshimoto
The lake has all sorts of different faces. And so it's always fresh. — Banana Yoshimoto
Be sure to keep your tummy warm, try to relax, both your heart and your body, try not to get flustered. Live like a flower. You have that right. — Banana Yoshimoto
I felt how important the simplest things were, like feeling proud, finding something funny, stretching yourself, retreating into yourself. — Banana Yoshimoto
These women lived their lives happily. They had been taught, probably by loving parents, not to exceed the boundaries of their happiness regardless of what they were doing. But therefore they could never know real joy. Which is better? Who can say? Everyone lives the way she knows best. What I mean by 'their happiness' is living a life untouched as much as possible by the knowledge that we are really, all of us, alone. That's not a bad thing. Dressed in their aprons, their smiling faces like flowers, leaning to cook, absorbed in their little troubles and perplexities, they fall in love and marry. I think that's great. I wouldn't mind that kind of life. Me, when I'm utterly exhausted by it all, my skin breaks out, on those lonely evenings when I call my friends again and again and nobody's home, then I despise my own life - my birth, my upbringing, everything. I feel only regret for the whole thing. — Banana Yoshimoto
That's the advantage of insomnia. People who go to be early always complain that the night is too short, but for those of us who stay up all night, it can feel as long as a lifetime. You get a lot done — Banana Yoshimoto
The days I'd passed with my mom before she died were still there, it seemed, seared into the corners of my heart.
The atmosphere of the station brought it all back. I could see myself running to the hospital, glad to be seeing my mother again. You never know you're happy until later. Because physical sensations like smells and exhaustion don't figure into our memories, I guess. Only the good bits bob up into view.
I was always startled by the snatches of memory that I saw as happy, how they came.
This time, it was the feeling I got when I stepped out onto the platform. The sense of what it had been like to be on my way to see my mom, for her still to be alive, if only for the time being, if only for that day. The happiness of that knowledge had come back to life inside me.
And the loneliness of that moment. The helplessness. — Banana Yoshimoto
When I'm dead worn out, in a reverie, I often think that when it comes time to die, I want to breathe my last in a kitchen. Whether it's cold and I'm all alone, or somebody's there and it's warm, I'll stare death fearlessly in the eye. If it's a kitchen, I'll think, 'How good. — Banana Yoshimoto
Whenever you get something in this world, you lose something too - that's just the way things work. — Banana Yoshimoto
There was a real sense of comfort but at the same time it felt oddly tense. The feeling that every little things we said, these conversations, at any moment, they could stop being possible, and so they were precious, it was that feeling, and the sense of the miracle of this shared moment, here and now. Why were we so far apart, even when we are together? It was anice loneliness, like th sensation of washing your face with cold water. — Banana Yoshimoto
I love feeling the rhythm of other people's lives. It's like traveling. — Banana Yoshimoto
Nakajima's past would always be there, so the foundation could crumble at any moment. That's what happens, I realized, when people destroy other people. — Banana Yoshimoto
I was frightened of so many things, in my vanity, that ultimately i couldn't protect myself any other way. Try not to be like that, okay? Be sure to keep your tummy warm, try to relax, both your heart and your body, try not to get flustered.
Live like a flower. You have that right. It's something you can achieve, for sure, in your lifetime. And it's enough. — Banana Yoshimoto
If people I don't care for are attracted to me, I accept it as the wages of beauty. — Banana Yoshimoto
I should have told her at the time. I could have taken a deep breath, looked away, and forced myself to say it. — Banana Yoshimoto
Once you've recognized your own limits, you've raised yourself to a higher level of being, since you're closer to the real you ... — Banana Yoshimoto
I mean it. When your light is out, Chihiro, I feel so alone I can hardly bear it."
Whenever Nakajima said my name, every single time, it sparkled like a treasure. I had no idea why. Wow - did you see how that flashed? Say it again for me, please!
Only I couldn't tell him that, so I simply replayed his voice, speaking my name, within me. — Banana Yoshimoto
What was important wasn't the fireworks, it was that we were together this evening, together in this place, looking up into the sky at the same time. — Banana Yoshimoto
I was kind of tired, I guess, of knowing people are flesh. Flesh and water. — Banana Yoshimoto
Akira often gets mad at me because he thinks I'm too nice to strangers, and cold as a fish at home. What can I do? He's right, but that's the way I am. I'm more enthusiastic about people I've just met, whom I barely know at all, than with old friends. Before the awkwardness of a new acquaintance has worn off, I'm ready to offer myself up to that person. — Banana Yoshimoto
All I wanted was to get through this as quickly as possible, to see the day when memories be just memories. — Banana Yoshimoto
Everyone knows that hidden pull is there, but we go on living our lives, pretending we don't. We keep our gazes fixed, day after day, on the things we want to see. — Banana Yoshimoto
Be sure to keep your tummy war, try to relax, both your heart and your body, try not to get flustered. Live like a flower. — Banana Yoshimoto
Chilled-looking people walking along the riverside, the snow beginning, faintly, to pile up on the roofs of cars, the bare trees shaking their heads left and right, dry leaves tossing in the wind. The silver of the metal window sash sparkling coldly.
Soon after, I heard sensei call, "Mikage! Are you awake? It's snowing, look! It's snowing!"
"I'm coming!" I called out, standing up. I got dressed to begin another day. Over and over, we begin again. — Banana Yoshimoto
For some reason I keep getting connected to men who have something to do with plants. — Banana Yoshimoto